"Colin Jordan was a stalwart of British fascism during its post-war doldrums, and over the following decades he was involved in most of the right-wing parties that subsequently emerged and dissolved."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"When he married, it was not a traditional C of E job. Jesus, in Jordan’s view, was ‘the counterfeit Christ of the Christians’. Jordan was literally a Hitler-worshipper, declaring Der Führer a ‘messiah” and a ‘saviour’. He married the fiancé of fellow Hitlerite John Tyndal while he was in prison, leading to a falling out between the two men. Françoise Dior, was Christian Dior’s niece,...
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- Mark H

I asked this earlier on other social networks with likes/faves but no answers so I'll ask here: if you're in a pub and someone - staff or punter - drops a glass does everyone else in the venue cheer loudly? This is typical in British pubs but I'm wondering if it's the same the world over.

I've never experienced it, with everyone cheering loudly. At house parties, or when out with a group, the group may say something like "Party foul", or "That's alcohol abuse." But it doesn't apply to everyone in the room, just the group.
- OCoG of FF, Jimminy

I think it'd be more likely to happen amongst a group of friends - "smooth move!" But when you don't know the person, you're more polite.
- Spidra Webster

Interesting. I think, over here, amongst friends you keep quiet and are typically British and embarrassed into silence because one of your group has drawn attention in some way whereas when it's another group or, more likely, someone behind the bar then we engage "British Abroad" mode and go full loud-mouth-yob-shout-loud-point-laugh at them.
- Mark H

I'm representative of some but the people to really ask are college boys...they may well do that.
- Spidra Webster

I've been places (not specifically bars, but small restaurants/dinners) where everyone kind of goes "OOOH!" but not in a mean way. Other times someone yells "clean up!"
- Heather

From my SoCal experience, it depends on the pub. In the fun ones, you'll get cheers. In the ones that cater to foodies & other boring people, you hear gasps and there's rubbernecking.
- Anika

I've witnessed more what Heather described in bars (or anywhere) than anything else. More sympathetic than otherwise.
- Anne Bouey

I think most Norwegians will pretend not to notice to lessen the embarrassment for the dropper. We may even feel a little bit of the embarrassment ourselves. At least during the first ten pints.
- Eivind

"From the fun 70's Ready-Set-Grow book series, A Kid's TV Guide deals with watching television intelligently, and teaches that TV can be a very good thing if it is wisely and properly controlled. It also teaches how tv can be a bad thing by causing people to want things that are not good for them, to escape from reality, to be passive and uncreative, or even to become violent. Be smart, don't let the tv control you!"
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Kent is a man with a problem, floundering in the gay dating scene as he looks for something that doesn’t seem to exist, a man who is wild, adventurous and rugged while still being smart, gentle and sophisticated. Just when Kent is certain that he’ll never find the best of both worlds, he meets Channing, a living gay dress who is famous online for appearing black and blue to some, and gold and white to others. It’s not long before Channing shows Kent that it’s all about perspective, in a hardcore gay love affair that will reveal once and for all just what color the dress really is. This erotic tale is 4,400 words of sizzling human on gay dress action, including anal, blowjobs, rough sex, cream pies, and color changing dress love."
- Mark H

I can't believe you got to it before my erotic author friend did, but in her defense she just made a move from CA to WA. :)
- Spidra Webster

"Ladybird Books is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The books delighted children for decades, but what did they teach us and have their lessons stood the test of time?"
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Some of the Ladybird books were "incredibly white", says Ms Day. "I've looked through to find out when the first black faces first appear and it's not until the 1960s," she says. "Despite an influx of immigrants welcomed to the UK to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War, there's no mention of that in Ladybird's world," says Prof Zeegan. However, he says the books started to...
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- Mark H

"Ladybird's science books showed activities including stripping the casing from a battery with pliers, using a penknife to shape wood into a propeller and making fire with a magnifying glass. In his book, Prof Zeegan says "it is unthinkable that any children's book publisher today would consider promoting activities in the same way [...] I'm not sure there were any more accidents...
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- Mark H

"CCTV has been released of the horrifying moment when 15-year-old, Alan Cartwright, was stabbed to death as he rode his bike with friends. Alan Cartwright and three friends were riding their bikes along Caledonian Road, near the junction of Copenhagen Street, on Friday 27 February at 19:34hrs when , without warning, two suspects stepped off the pavement and lunged at the youths. Almost immediately the first suspect stabbed Alan in the chest, whilst another suspect charged at one of Alan’s friends, knocking him off his bike. Alan managed to continue a short distance before he collapsed."
- Mark H

"You see less than 20 color nuances: you are a dichromats, like dogs, which means you have 2 types of cones only. You are likely to wear black, beige, and blue. 25% of the population is dichromat."
- Mark H

"You see between 20 and 32 color nuances: you are a trichromat, you have 3 types of cones (in the purple/blue, green and red area). You enjoy different colors as you can appreciate them. 50% of the population is trichromat."
- Mark H

"You see between 33 and 39 colors: you are a tetrachromat, like bees, and have 4 types of cones (in the purple/blue, green, red plus yellow area). You are irritated by yellow, so this color will be nowhere to be found in your wardrobe. 25% of the population is tetrachromat."
- Mark H

39, but I actually do like yellow (I just look terrible in most yellow/orange, so I don't wear it.)
- Jennifer Dittrich

I will admit that the yellow band is the one where I see the least variance - I know there are probably additional different shades, but don't distinguish as many. The blues? All over that.
- Jennifer Dittrich

Here is another similar test http://www.xrite.com/online-... interesting to do and it tells you what range you have trouble with. A low score it good. I got a 4 and my poor range is in the greens which surprised me. I would have guessed the reds.
- Shannon - GlassMistress

33. Not a fan of yellow for clothing, but I do have yellow items in my kitchen and a few other places. Orange, on the other hand...ew. ETA: viewed the spectrum again on my tablet & got 39. Hmm.
- Corinne L

My understanding is that you see greys with rods, color with cones. (Interesting: Wikipedia's article doesn't include a mention of a fourth cone variety, and since Wikipedia's always right...) [36, for what it's worth, and my wife says I have lousy color discrimination. No yellow in my wardrobe; that's for flowers.]
- walt crawford

36, though since we can infer where a different color would be I'm not sure how accurate that is.
- Todd Hoff

I saw about 37 bands, but "Professor" Diana Derval is an expert in "neuromarketing", aka "marketing". It's worth nothing that even though it's a PNG, there's what looks like JPG compression artifacts which introduce additional, unintended colors about a pixel wide. </grump>
- Andrew C (✔)

Then again, she may have uploaded it as a PNG and LinkedIn's crappy CMS auto-converted it to a JPG, since the filename is "png" but it's actually a JPG anyways.
- Andrew C (✔)

"In an interview from jail, Mukesh Singh said that women who went out at night had only themselves to blame if they attracted the attention of gangs of male molesters. "A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said. His victim, Jyoti Singh, 23, was returning from an evening at the cinema with a male friend when the six-strong gang offered them a lift in a mini-bus they were driving. She was raped and frenziedly beaten with iron bars, prompting widespread demonstrations for Indian women to have greater protection from sexual violence."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"In an interview for a BBC documentary, Singh also claimed that had Jyoti and her friend not tried to fight back, the gang would not have not have inflicted the savage beating, which led her to die from her injuries two weeks later. Describing the killing as an "accident", he said: "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy.""
- Mark H

""You can't clap with one hand – it takes two hands," he says in the interview. "A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.""
- Mark H

Someone close to me was raped one night while walking home from a friend's house. When she stumbled in the door, her father blamed her for walking around at night. This sort of victim blaming is absolutely unconscionable.
- Jenny H.
from Android

"A female army officer has been given a medal for challenging the "highly misogynistic" views of Afghan soldiers. Staff Sergeant Kate Lord, 32, received the prestigious Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service for challenging the opinions of young men in the Afghan National Army, who accused her of being weak were shocked that her husband would let her go to Afghanistan. Lord trained Afghans in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, and was praised for helping to tackle the country's "deeply conservative culture".""
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Her award citation says that "nobody in this mission - male or female - has done more to further the standing of women in the Afghan National Army". She said: "Originally I was sent out to mentor women in the Afghan National Army. However, when I got there there were no women because there had been a delay in their recruitment, so I was thrown in the deep end and sent to mentor the men. If I had known I was mentoring the men I probably would have prepared a little bit more perhaps.""
- Mark H

""When I first met my mentors I had three and it was a weird reaction. They at first stared for quite some time, they were intrigued with me, then the questions started firing towards me. Very personal questions, so they wanted to know whether I was married or not. They were shocked that my husband would let me go to Afghan on my own with lots of men. Then they started getting onto the...
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- Mark H

"Gabi's relationship with the neighbourhood crows began accidentally in 2011. She was four years old, and prone to dropping food. She'd get out of the car, and a chicken nugget would tumble off her lap. A crow would rush in to recover it. Soon, the crows were watching for her, hoping for another bite. As she got older, she rewarded their attention, by sharing her packed lunch on the way to the bus stop. Her brother joined in. Soon, crows were lining up in the afternoon to greet Gabi's bus, hoping for another feeding session."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"The crows would clear the feeder of peanuts, and leave shiny trinkets on the empty tray; an earring, a hinge, a polished rock. There wasn't a pattern. Gifts showed up sporadically - anything shiny and small enough to fit in a crow's mouth. One time it was a tiny piece of metal with the word "best" printed on it. "I don't know if they still have the part that says 'friend'," Gabi laughs, amused by the thought of a crow wearing a matching necklace."
- Mark H

"Lisa, Gabi's mom, regularly photographs the crows and charts their behaviour and interactions. Her most amazing gift came just a few weeks ago, when she lost a lens cap in a nearby alley while photographing a bald eagle as it circled over the neighbourhood. She didn't even have to look for it. It was sitting on the edge of the birdbath. Had the crows returned it? Lisa logged on to her...
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- Mark H

"A Tory MP has claimed NHS over-crowding could be solved by doctors using astrology to treat patients. David Tredinnick said consulting the stars would "take huge pressure off doctors" and predicts astrology will "have a role to play in healthcare." The MP for Bosworth in Leicestershire also admitted he had prepared astrological charts for fellow MPs. In an interview with this month's Astrological Journal, the controversial MP said: "There would be a huge row over resources. However, I do believe that astrology and complementary medicine would help take the huge pressure off doctors.""
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"He added that opponents to astrology were "bullies", saying: "Astrology offers self-understanding to people. People who oppose what I say are usually bullies who have never studied astrology. They never look at it. They are absolutely dismissive. Astrology may not be capable of passing double-blind tests but it is based on thousands of years of observation. [...] People such as...
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- Mark H

"Bizarrely, Tredinnick, 65, who is chairman of the All-Party Group for Integrated Healthcare, went on to say people who opposed astrology were "racist". He said: "The opposition (to astrology) is based on what I call the SIP formula - superstition, ignorance, and prejudice. It tends to be based on superstition, with scientists reacting emotionally, which is always a great irony. They...
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- Mark H

So if the moons/planets are out of alignment, does that mean they can't operate and the doctors get the day off to play golf?
- Halil

In a way he's right, you know. Bullshit in place of medicine will probably help with the over-crowding.
- Eivind

I saw a tweet from earlier today by the FUKP party saying that astrology didn't go far enough and that operations should be cancelled if a magpie was spotted on the way to hospital.
- Mark H

"Weee!....He’s a right dinlo....Dip me ‘ead for a sparsy!...she’s well squinny!" If you cannot understand at least a couple of these expressions then there’s a good chance you’re not from Portsmouth.
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Dr Clark said Pompeyspeak was closely tied to the dockyards and was distinct from naval slang, which came and went with the sailors. She said this maritime connection set the accent apart from the typical Hampshire drawl. ‘The Hampshire accent is a very broad, country accent, with longer R-sounds,’ Dr Clark said. ‘I would say that the vowels are broader rather than the rather clipped,...
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- Mark H

Interesting how some of the accents appear to have changed (not that I've got a real Pompey accent anyway) and odd to see phrases written down as "Going deyn tayn on the Saith Dain for half a crane" whereas we would be much more likely now to say something like "Goin' dan tan rand the randabat" (going down town, round the roundabout).
- Mark H

Thank you! You probably haven't known of my fondness for listening to various forms of British English. :-)
- Maitani

"Philippines-based illustrator Kerby Rosanes is back with more of his amazing black ink doodles. Drawn in his trusty Moleskine, his new works feature various pop-culture characters such as Loki, The Joker, and Venom—as well as wild animals like a sabretooth tiger, a fox, and an owl."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Parents are using bleach enemas/drinks to try to cure their children of autism. They force the bleach solution into their own children orally or via enemas — both of which can cause serious health issues. Parents report their children fighting, screaming and writhing in pain. The monsters who sell the product online say it’s a miracle cure. The sane population calls it child abuse."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"On February 23 1963 Peter Hicks [...] parked his Land Rover in Marylebone. A police constable passing by heard a ticking noise emanating from the vehicle. He looked inside. He touched the door. And he received an electric shock. The officer called his sergeant over. He too touched the car. He too received a jolt. Mr Hicks had been watching. He approached the policemen and revealed that he had wired his Land Rover to a device normally used to electrify cattle fences. He saw his vehicle as his property. To keep wandering hands off, he had electrified it. His orginial enemy targets were thieves but he’d moved on to traffic wardens, who had been introduced to London on September 19 1960 and were costing him over £30 a week in fines."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Mr Hicks wanted to deter these new traffic cops. And if he could have some fun in the process, all to the good. As his son would recall: 'He actually used to deliberately drive around and park his Land Rover in the West End and then go and sit in a pub or a restaurant. He’d get himself a nice window table and park very obviously – and illegally – outside. He and his mates would sit...
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- Mark H

"Among the plethora of promotional material created by 20th Century Fox for the original 1968 Planet Of The Apes were these two-color "door panel" posters for theaters, introducing various characters from the film. This kind of giant poster was fairly prevalent in the 60s (I've seen similar ones for the Bond films and other flicks), but became less common in the 70s as studios continued to cut costs on this kind of promotion."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

Went out for a walk into town to pick up some bath products from Lush. As is our way we ended up hitting one or more-than-one pubs on the walk back home. At the third pub we had a long talk about a number of things which led to me saying "That will make a good #SaturdayFF anecdote for Friendfeed."

Sadly, further pubs leapt up and interrupted the ensuing return home and despite a probing of our collective memories neither of us can now remember what it was. I'm sure it was going to be quite good.
- Mark H

You guys are like our spirit couple. Yes, I'm at the pub and I've had many glasses of wine and whisky sours, but whatever. We need to get together!
- Jenny H.
from Android

"On 8 February, a riot erupted in Cairo in which 40 football fans were killed after a clash with police. At 9pm that evening I turned on Al Jazeera, to see what they were making of it. The answer was a lot, and they cleared their schedule to tell it. Having carried a major – and in retrospect, prophetic – documentary about the simmering anger among excluded Zamalek fans just two days previously, they were well placed to tell us what this event might portend."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"Over on the BBC's dedicated news channel – formerly known as BBC News 24 – the lead item at 9pm was pensioner bonds, followed at a quick trot by reports on Prince Charles's fogeyish thoughts about Islamist militancy; on the Ukraine; on hospital trust finances; on Labour promises and Tory rejoinders; and on Tony Abbott's shaky majority in the Australian parliament (all repeats of items...
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- Mark H

"The self-styled ‘Islamic State’ Group (ISIS or ISIL), the Arabic acronym for which is Daesh, is increasingly haunting the nightmares of Western journalists and security analysts. I keep seeing some assertions about it that strike me as exaggerated or as just incorrect."
- Mark H
from Bookmarklet

"3. Massive numbers of fighters have gone to join Daesh since last summer. Actually, the numbers are quite small proportionally. British PM David Cameron ominously warned that 400 British Muslim youth had gone off to fight in Syria. But there are like 3.7 million Muslims in the UK now! So .000027 percent of the community volunteered. They are often teens, some are on the lam from petty...
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- Mark H